Digital Divide and Access to Quality Education in the Time of Pandemic

Educational emergency has been a long-lasting repercussion of the covid 19 pandemic. When the mode of education drifted into a digitized form, it created a divide between students who could access online education and not. This research paper examines the catastrophic consequences of the digital divide in the education sector. Though education is a birthright, underprivileged students have always suffered in this regard. Here the researcher tries to find out how the digital divide has affected the lives of students in Samba District, Jammu and Kashmir. More specifically, it scouts out how students from poor families have accessed online classes, the difficulties they have faced, and how the online mode of education has affected academic interests. The researcher has employed a quantitative method for the study. The empirical data was collected through surveys among the senior secondary students. The whole Samba District is divided into five educational zones; the researcher has conducted surveys in two schools from every five zones. Statistical tests like t-test, chi-square, and correlation were used to establish the nature of the interconnection between the variables. Results derived from the surveys conducted show that the online mode of education has created a bifurcation. The students who belong to the Below Poverty Line suffered to arrange even the minimal facilities to attend their online classes. The unforeseen shift in the mode of education made the underprivileged students of this land victims. Many of the students have faced problems in subscription, and connectivity issues and even many have found it difficult to catch up with this innovation. These issues forced dropouts and academic interest among those who were underprivileged. This disruption weighed the inequalities already entrenched within the system.